Leadership entitlement based on liberation credentials has suffered citizens - Mandaza

A Political commentator Ibbo Mandaza has said Zimbabweans have been subjected to continuous and serious suffering due to leadership entitlement based on liberation credentials.

He said it is ironic that in this celebratory mode Zimbabweans have printed posters and T-shirts calling Emmerson Mnangagwa  and Constantino Chiwenga heroes of 'Our Liberation'.

"Well , here is how a nation that has suffered from the tyranny of leadership by entitlement based on war (liberation credentials) is now building a new layer of new legitimacy and entitlement to leadership based on this so-called new liberation ( the benevolent coup). So Mnangagwa and Chiwenga now have - to use a Grace Mugabe term- a 'double portion of the anointing' to rule by virtue of these "Double Liberation" credentials," he said.

"It makes sense to forget everything else and focus on this historic moment, but at what cost to the broader pro-democracy , human rights, State accountability , comprehensive State reforms , ending impunity & transparent natural resource governance ? Have we or are we in danger of donating a political kidney to a Zanu PF that was on its death bed and in essence adding more years to its lifespan as a governing party? There is a belief amongst those either looking for jobs or that have been promised jobs to seek to normalize the abnormal."

He said that is, an attempt to paint folk who enabled the stealing of the 2008 election , were critical in undermining elections in 2000, 2002, 2005, 2008 and 2013...as liberators.

"If they had not interfered with democratic elections, voting Zimbabweans would have removed Mugabe in 2000. Why now ? What interests are at stake other than the claim that people are suffering ? Really , like there hasn't been suffering all along ? It is amazing how a Zanu PF factional fight led to a coup and now must be repackaged through street demonstrations as a polular revolution . Indeed Mugabe must go ...But more fundamentally, the system must go! Others insist that change must be incremental and they said as much when they were cajoled into a GNU in 2008 after the people's victory had been subverted by this cabal. Now too , popular democratic forces must eat the crumbs at the table of the Zanu PF Oligarchs," he said.

"Emaciated by years of military resistance and refusal to embrace democratic will of the people, the opposition thinks that it is participating in removing a reviled 94-year Old or is it ? This is the coronation of the person the Dictator would have entrusted with power were it not for his lack of capacity to restrain his wife's avaricious appetite for power . She opened too many wars on too many fronts and united old foes against her power bid."

Mandaza said this reads like Samson and Delilah story , except that story has two endings.

"Samson loses his hair and eyes( power & vision) & yet in death he pulls down the pillars of the building and kills more philistines than he did in his lifetime. I pray for peace in my country. But above all , I pray for wisdom . I pray for a unity based on shared values and not just a common frail enemy. I pray for insight beyond Euphoria . I pray that impunity is not repackaged and sanitized . I pray that there be no violence , bloodshed or human rights violations under the guise of revolution. We cannot afford to give another set of leaders a blank cheque or license to dictate," he said.